Jason Reza Jorjani underscores the threat of imminent global and civil conflicts, stressing the erosion of America’s Promethean essence by “Woke” ideologies and the critical need to defend the country’s pioneering spirit and cultural sovereignty.
The only question in this prescient and well thought piece is "defending the country's pioneering spirit" when the fronteir closed 133 years ago. Eight years after that came the War with Spain and imperial expansion to Hawaii, the Banana Wars thru 1934 "Good Neighbor Policy" so we could fight in another world war with even more "progressive" intentions.
FDR and Stalin were as close as America and Russia ever were.
The frontier is nostalgic at this point.
In WW2, the frontiersman became the gunslinger ready to give the HUns and then Tojo "a sock in the nose". John Wayne was the archtype.
Then came Clint Eastwoods' "Spahgetti Westerns"- a darker look-"Kelly's Heroes" brought cynicism to WW2. "Indiana Jones" brought slapstick caricature.
Today, Natenyahu informs us that Israel cannot be criticized because of the "holocaust". Ursula Haverbeck went to jail for saying such things. We seem to have reached the point of Kafka humor.
The "Third World" has become the "Global South": there are no more frontiers: no Dr. Livingston, Lewis and Clark, Columbus.
We're not frontiersmen anymore and the spirit of the frontier is now only imagination if not nostalgia, not quite as bad as the "Woke" contrarians, but still not real, either.
People back then wanted "civilization" and statehood. Prarie life was onerous. People didn't flock West with the Transcontinental Railroad. It was a wartime project that went bust. There was nothing there but prarie and steel rails.
I wonder how much most people even know about it outside entertainment.
Politicians use history for an excuse, not to understand.
The pioneering spirit is complicated and changed over time.
It has left a void to be sure but I think we need something to replace it rather than defend it since it requires no defence. It's history. The more one defends the more others attack. Never argue with stupid people. I think we have greater tasks i.e. where are we going? That is the frontier, today, and it not spatial. It's in time.
I see it in Mark Twain and TUcker Carlson : straight talking, common sense "Yankees" who suck up to neither money nor power yet aren't completely hung up on themselves.
Twain's characters were marvelously flawed but he liked them anyway.
The only question in this prescient and well thought piece is "defending the country's pioneering spirit" when the fronteir closed 133 years ago. Eight years after that came the War with Spain and imperial expansion to Hawaii, the Banana Wars thru 1934 "Good Neighbor Policy" so we could fight in another world war with even more "progressive" intentions.
FDR and Stalin were as close as America and Russia ever were.
The frontier is nostalgic at this point.
In WW2, the frontiersman became the gunslinger ready to give the HUns and then Tojo "a sock in the nose". John Wayne was the archtype.
Then came Clint Eastwoods' "Spahgetti Westerns"- a darker look-"Kelly's Heroes" brought cynicism to WW2. "Indiana Jones" brought slapstick caricature.
Today, Natenyahu informs us that Israel cannot be criticized because of the "holocaust". Ursula Haverbeck went to jail for saying such things. We seem to have reached the point of Kafka humor.
The "Third World" has become the "Global South": there are no more frontiers: no Dr. Livingston, Lewis and Clark, Columbus.
We're not frontiersmen anymore and the spirit of the frontier is now only imagination if not nostalgia, not quite as bad as the "Woke" contrarians, but still not real, either.
People back then wanted "civilization" and statehood. Prarie life was onerous. People didn't flock West with the Transcontinental Railroad. It was a wartime project that went bust. There was nothing there but prarie and steel rails.
I wonder how much most people even know about it outside entertainment.
Politicians use history for an excuse, not to understand.
The pioneering spirit is complicated and changed over time.
It has left a void to be sure but I think we need something to replace it rather than defend it since it requires no defence. It's history. The more one defends the more others attack. Never argue with stupid people. I think we have greater tasks i.e. where are we going? That is the frontier, today, and it not spatial. It's in time.
I see it in Mark Twain and TUcker Carlson : straight talking, common sense "Yankees" who suck up to neither money nor power yet aren't completely hung up on themselves.
Twain's characters were marvelously flawed but he liked them anyway.
That would be something new!
Interesting concept. You identified the present problem but the steps to a solution can be fleshed out a bit more. Looking forward to the dialogue.
Pretty much what I see and think.